Glam:The Performance of Style

‘Glam: The Performance of Style’ is the first book to fully examine the serious cultural influence of one of the twentieth century’s most excessive and exciting pop movements. ‘Glam’ emerged in the early 1970s and remains one of the most instantly recognisable but critically derided stylistic phenomena of twentieth century art and cultural history. Known mostly through the music of the era, including T.Rex, David Bowie, Roxy Music and Lou Reed, the style was also evident in other art forms through its acquaintance with theatrics, artifice, mythicism and androgyny.

Covering a range of subjects including fashion, music, film, gender in performance and postmodernism, the book moves beyond a nostalgic reception and will reveal the underacknowledged exchange between avant-garde art and the extravagant style, tracing the glam sensibility to performance and installation art, and to painting and sculpture.

Artists represented in the show include Michel Auder, Lynda Benglis, James Lee Byars, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Gilbert & George, Jack Goldstein, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Peter Hujar, Allen Jones, Ed Paschke, Peter Phillips, Sigmar Polke, Cindy Sherman, Katharina Sieverding, Jack Smith, Ulay and Andy Warhol. The book will feature an illustrated timeline with contributions from a range of writers including Jean-Christophe Ammann, Michael Bracewell, Chrissie Iles, Dominic Johnson, and Simon Reynolds and Alwyn Turner.